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About 11 years ago, Steve Gill had to make a choice between fresh-cut flowers and burritos.

And no, it wasn’t for Valentine’s Day, although his wife had been eager for him to get into the less messy petal-pushing business.

But Gill, a Scarborough-born software developer and entrepreneur, had burritos on the brain while doing tech consulting work for several months in Denver — home to numerous Mexican restaurants, and the city where the uber-successful chain Chipotle started out in 1993.

“Not a lot of people realize that there’s a big Hispanic community in Colorado, so I ate a lot of burritos. They were everywhere,” says Gill.

“They just weren’t here,” notes the owner and founder of Quesada, taking a trip down memory lane in the first location he opened, in 2004, at Wellington St. W. and John St.

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He said that besides eating at one-off restaurants and smaller players (Burrito Boyz opened its original spot in the Entertainment District in 2004), most Canadians’ experience with Mexican food was either from an Old El Paso box or the ill-fated Chi-Chi’s chain, which was popular here in the ’80s for its Chimichangas, but disappeared from Canada in the early 2000s.

After researching successful burrito businesses in Colorado, California and Arizona, a colleague in Denver convinced Gill, then 34, that Mexican cuisine had tremendous potential north of the border.

“Canadians have a more adventurous palate and they like spices, but they are also more health conscious today,” Gill notes.

“Since gourmet, healthy burritos didn’t really exist in Toronto yet, I sensed it was a great opportunity and the timing was right,” says Gill, noting it was a real gamble since he knew nothing about the restaurant business.

“Every real estate agent told me I would be out of business within a year since the area had not yet experienced the condo growth it has now,” he says with a smile.

But Quesada, the Toronto-born chain offering freshly prepared tacos and quesadillas and home of the intimidating “Big Ass Burrito”, has grown leaps and bounds since then; the chain now has 40 restaurants across Canada and ambitious plans to double in size this year with 80 locations.

As flat growth and declining sales continue to plague the traditional fast food industry, Quesada’s sales are up 19 per cent so far this year over the same period in 2014, he says. That’s despite the growing competition from other homegrown fast-casual chains also offering fresh food made-to-order, including Burrito Boyz, Mucho Burrito, Z-Teca, Burrito Bandidos and Fat Bastard Burrito Co. There’s also U.S. behemoth Chipotle.

“Fast-casual is the fastest growing segment of the Canadian market,” says Robert Carter, executive director of food services at market researcher NPD Group. He said that niche includes everything from Freshii to Hero Certified Burgers to the booming burrito business.

“The desire for customization, for food prepared fresh right in front of you with your desired toppings, and the halo effect of health and wellness around it is propelling the category,” Carter says.

And customers are willing to pay a bit more for a better quick-service meal without the added pressure to tip, he says.

Although fast-casual represents just one per cent of the 6.6 billion restaurant visits made annually by Canadians, it is projected to grow by 5 to 7 per cent per year until 2020, says a recent NPD report.

“Canadians are looking for stronger, bolder flavours, and Mexican is certainly very under-developed in the market,” Carter explains.

“These burrito places are well-positioned for future growth,” he adds.

Chipotle, which has over 1,800 locations in the U.S. and is seen as the antithesis of the fast-food burger joint, is slowly making inroads into Canada, and just opened its seventh Toronto location last week in the Stockyards. It also has two locations in Vancouver.

A Chipotle spokesperson said the chain has a team scouting real estate for locations in Toronto, and expects expansion over the next year.

“We have a really loyal, enthusiastic following in Toronto,” said international marketing manager Jacqueline Gonzales. “We take a pretty measured approach to our growth, but I think one day we’d like to be all over Canada.”

Canada is Chipotle’s biggest international market, followed by six locations in the U.K., three in France and one in Germany.

“We know that people in Canada appreciate really good food and healthy ingredients. Canadians just get it,” she notes.

While most companies in the fast food and fast casual category traditionally spend about 5 per cent of total revenue on marketing and advertising, Chipotle reports that it spends just 1.5 per cent on those areas.

“Our marketing budget is exponentially smaller than typical fast food chains, who tend to offer 99-cent value items or limited-time offers. We prefer to invest more money into high-quality food and getting our message across about how our ingredients are prepared, raised and grown,” Gonzales says.

Chipotle scored a hit with local vegetarians by bringing its Sofritas north last year, which is a vegan tofu filling in burritos, tacos, salads and taco bowls alongside regular meat options. Quesada for its part grills its burritos, has a Mexican-style coleslaw and serves beer at its patio locations.

Gill says he’s not worried about the other players on his turf.

“It’s been a good run over the last decade. There’s plenty of room for anybody who is doing a good job with burritos.”

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